ADULTING (YES, IT'S A VERB)

Adulting.  That elusive ability to appear like you have all your stuff together.  You are responsible with your money and don't buy frivolous things like pets that aren't real, you are cool, calm, and collected in almost every awkward situation, and you're not afraid to have tough conversations with people.

As I was pumping myself up to make a difficult phone call, I thought about this whole adulting thing and how it's not nearly as cool as it's cracked up to be.  As a kid, you think of adults as these other worldly beings whose intellect knows no bounds and they can do just about anything.  Lost that pair of shorts?  I bet they know where it is.  Need help turning on the TV?  No sweat.  Sure, these are simple things, but at the time I thought, "Wow!  When I get to be an adult, I'm going to know EVERYTHING!"

Sadly, this is not the case.  Sure, I know how to turn on the TV and am halfway decent at remembering where I left my shorts, but there are some things that adults are expected to be proficient at that I wasn't aware of.

Anything that is uncomfortable or awkward, I usually put off for as long as I possibly can or try to get someone else to do my dirty work.

For the past few months, I've been selling some of my wares on consignment at a little vintage shop in the area.  The owner is so sweet and reached out to me about selling my things in her shop.  I sold a few things, but there hasn't really been any activity for the past few months.  Since I had so much inventory there, I had made the decision I wanted to pull it and try selling it somewhere else.  The shop isn't huge and is largely supported by vendor sales, so I didn't want it to seem like I had lost faith in the shop, though.

Some people I asked about the situation suggested I just go in there tomorrow and say that I'm taking everything with me and send the owner a note afterward.  That would have probably been easier, but I knew it wasn't the "adult" thing to do.  I had to call the owner and talk to her before any action was taken.  She ended up being so sweet.  I'm sure she realized this store might not be the correct avenue for my stuff, but she was very complimentary and gave me ideas of some other places that might work better.  What I had thought would be like a bad breakup where you worry about running into that person in the street, turned out to be a very level headed and reasonable conversation.

This whole conversation led me to another realization about this whole adulting thing: reasonable people will 95% of the time act reasonably.  I had gone so far down the worst case scenario that I almost scared myself from taking the responsible action.

And out of this all also came another skill I have to add to my adulting arsenal.  I will fail, but I will also succeed.  Life is a balancing act.  This store didn't work out, but my things in another store (Made) do well.  Successful adulting is about realizing when changes are needed and then having the courage to make those changes and the perseverance to follow through with them.  I'm still a work in progress, but hopefully soon I will be adulting the crap out of life:)


What are some adulting skills you've developed or are still working on?